Have you ever seen Dua Lipa’s passport photo? Probably not, although you might think you have. A makeup-free photo of Dua Lipa taken before a Versace show has been circulating recently, with one cheeky netizen falsely claiming it was her official passport photo.
Such is the interest in Lipa’s jet-setting that the image immediately went viral, loaded with retweets and sarcastic comments like “I bet a check-in desk hates to see her coming” and “I know the TSA sick of seeing this picture.” On January 17, the 29-year-old singer made the very same joke herself, captioning a photo dump on Instagram: “You know an airport hates to see me coming.”
At this point, the English-Albanian pop star is as well known for her globe-trotting antics as she is for her actual music. But Dua Lipa is far from a mindless traveller splashing her cash on ultra-exclusive A-list hotspots and private islands. Lipa is worldly and keen to learn about other cultures. She already speaks Albanian and English and is even learning bits of French and Spanish, earning her the satisfying apt nickname Dua Lingo.
It’s something that’s exemplified by her Service95 platform, where Lipa runs a book club, shares her travel recommendations and publishes thought-provoking essays by experienced writers.
For a multi-millionaire, Lipa’s travel itineraries aren’t overwhelmingly exclusive, nor are they impossible to replicate. She is, in some ways, the closest thing Gen Z has to an Anthony Bourdain figure.
So, how do we emulate the ultimate holiday-goer? Here’s how to do it like Dua.
Keep it European
While Dua Lipa’s scratch-off map of countries is undoubtedly ninety per cent full at this point, she does have a real preference for Europe, making many of her holiday experiences easier to emulate for us fellow Britons.
Last year, Lipa named her number one travel destination as Southern Albania, which checks out — it’s her home country, after all. The Albanian Riviera is also on the precipice of a travel explosion, having been dubbed the “Maldives of Europe” for its transparent turquoise waters and white sand beaches.
Plus, it’s still relatively underexplored, which makes it a fairly cheap travel destination. Even if you’re trying to do it like Dua, you’ll probably end up spending significantly less than a holiday on the Amalfi Coast or in the South of France.
Lipa specifically frequents one Albanian coastal hotspot: Ksamil. Here, Lipa appears to have a permanent residence at Kep Merli, an ultra-luxe, highly private resort nestled in the hills above the Ionian coast. Guests are shuttled down to Kep Merli’s private beach cove on golf buggies and often arrive at the hotel via helicopter. Despite all this, some of the prices are very respectable: a day pass to Kep Merli costs £20, and mains at its swish main restaurant start at £15. (Nights from £760, kepmerli.com).
Other European destinations favoured by Lipa include Deià, in Mallorca, where she recently stayed at La Residencia, a Belmond Hotel. The hotel is comprised of two old manor houses and a collection of hillside suites, all of which sit within the Tramuntana Mountains, facing the Mediterranean Sea. (Nights from £1,338, belmond.com). She’s been known to stay at Belmond Hotels before, having visited Belmond’s Splendido property in Portofino with her best friend Sarah Lysander in 2022.
Lipa also recently visited the Italian city of Naples with her boyfriend Callum Turner. On Instagram, Lipa posted pictures of herself walking around the city, browsing through record stores and dining at dinky little trattorias, just like any other traveller. Although she was armed with a baseball cap to keep it low profile, of course.
Before this, she enjoyed a family holiday at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, a legendary luxury hotel in Antibes, South of France. (Nights from £1,224, oetkerhotels.com). Over in Paris, Lipa is known to have stayed in The Costes Hotel in the 1st arrondissement. (Nights from £695, hotelcostes.com). While there, she dined at the popular Parisian bistro Chez Janou, which is located in the 3rd arrondissement. The singer also has a yearly tradition of heading to Ibiza to celebrate her birthday, where she rents out a private villa and eats, drinks and parties with friends and family.
Bring a thought-provoking beach read
Did you know that certain celebrities have dedicated staff members to pick out their holiday beach reads? It’s part of the reason you’ll always see Kendall Jenner walking around with Post-It notes on her books: her assistant has written them to give Jenner a feel of the book she’s reading. Just you wait until she finds out about blurbs!
Dua Lipa is not someone who relies on Post-It notes to tell her what book to read. If anything, she’s the one writing the Post-Its: the popstar is a voracious reader, competent literary interviewer, and has her own Service95 book club, where she reads along with fans and recommends a different book each month.
This initially started as a regular feature on Lipa’s Instagram around 2020, where she would highlight recent reads and recommendations. Early examples of these recommendations included Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, Luster by Raven Leilani, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Misery by Stephen King.
Then, in 2022, Lipa launched Service95. Since Service95 launched, she’s recommended The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez — to name but a few. Suffice it to say, Lipa is not just posing with the odd Murakami novel for clout, nor is she secretly scoffing down some Sarah J. Maas by the pool (that we know of). This girl’s the real deal.
Wear maxi dresses and layered swimwear
If there’s one thing Dua Lipa loves, it’s wearing a teeny tiny bikini top with some well-selected layers. She doesn’t abandon her London-girl style on holiday, either. Take her Albanian beach day look from this April, which included a Martine Rose lace-up track top worn over a blue gingham bikini top, a yellow scrunchie and woven Bottega Veneta beach bag. Or her cut-out vest outfit from the same trip, where Lipa paired red swimwear with a distressed yellow vest and black flipflops. Her favourite swimwear brands are Frankie’s Bikinis (which retail for around £100 an item, but bikini tops go as low as £30 on sale) and With Jéan (which cost around £150 for a set).
She’s also big into accessorising. Emulating that Dua Lipa holiday look means not skimping on the jewellery. While in Deià, she wore a Hunza G black studded bikini and a Christopher Esber sheer skirt adorned with lashings of silver jewellery, including silver Tiffany & Co cuffs, a knot necklace and a silver cross. Oh, and let’s not forget that whopping engagement ring. For other accessories, Lipa favours Bottega Veneta and Chanel bags as well as her trusty Saint Laurent Mica Thin Sunglasses.
Dua Lipa’s holiday looks continue their dishevelled glam into the evening, where she often dons sheer day-to-night beachwear or evening dresses. In Deià, Lipa posted a picture of herself smoking in a black lace halterneck dress. In another picture from what appears to be the same trip, the popstar donned a glittering Isabel Marant beach dress, sheer enough to reveal her black bikini with dainty cherries tied onto the strings.
Boats, cards and cocktails
If you really want to live the Dua Lipa life on holiday, you need to find yourself a boat, pronto. Lipa rarely posts a holiday photo dump without at least one requisite boat pic, where she’ll likely be reading, sunbathing, or both at the same time. While in Mallorca, Lipa and her friends chartered a luxury Tesero yacht called Goldfinger to take them around the coast. The yacht also offers trip to Cala Deià, where the iconic Ca’s Patró March restaurant is located, and Lipa appears to have dined. The restaurant is best known for appearing in the BBC series The Night Manager.
Otherwise, Lipa’s holiday dumps are littered with pictures of her and her friends playing cards, smoking cigs and drinking cocktails — classic Brits abroad behaviour. Lipa’s favourite cocktail appears to be a martini, served in a rounded, tall glass, with a fat olive, though she also appears to be partial to a cheeky holiday Negroni. It’s all very chic.
